Special issue on The effects of discontinuity on career

Citation

(2006), "Special issue on The effects of discontinuity on career", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 21 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp.2006.05021haa.004

Special issue on The effects of discontinuity on career

Special issue on The effects of discontinuity on career

Looked at in retrospect, careers often develop a flavour of continuity, organic step-by-step development and smoothness. However, in real time the development of careers, career decision making and the context within which careers unfold are characterised by few of these features. Rather, disruption, unforeseeable major external events or radical change – in other words, discontinuities – are key elements of unfolding careers.

Discontinuity can occur at different levels and take a number of forms. At the individual level, critical life events such as job loss, divorce, mid-life crisis, near-fatal accidents, radical lifestyle changes etc. can drastically affect careers. At the organisational level, bankruptcy, legitimacy crises, organisational scandals, mergers and acquisitions, hostile takeovers, etc. can have far reaching consequences for careers and career paths. At the broader contextual level, economic crises, large-scale terrorist attacks and political events such as the fall of the iron curtain, etc. can have an impact on careers and their context.

This special issue focuses on the effects of discontinuity on work careers. It invites theoretical, empirical and methodological papers that shed light on various aspects of the relationship between discontinuity and work careers and the possibility to study it. They relate topics such as job loss, organisational crisis, luck, long term effects of seemingly minor career decisions, major career transitions or international assignments to careers.

The Journal of Managerial Psychology is interested in a special issue featuring the best of these papers. The issue is planned for publication in December 2007.If you would like a paper to be considered for this special issue, please:

1. 1.

   Submit an expression of interest to the guest editors by 30 September 2006. This just needs to be a short note in which you tell us that you are intending to submit a full paper, the title of the paper and a 10-15 lines abstract.

2. 2.

   Submit the full paper to Jelena Zikic (jelenaz@yorku.ca) by 15 March 2007.

The submitted papers will be put through a standard double blind review process, and the best of the papers, provided they meet the editorial standards of the journal,will either be accepted or revisions invited.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Jelena Zikic (jelenaz@yorku.ca), Hugh Gunz (hugh.gunz@utoronto.ca) and Wolfgang Mayrhofer (wolfgang.mayrhofer@wuwien.ac.at)